happening now. prepare for the worst. hurricane irma strengthens to say category 5 storm. forecasters warn it could be a potentially catastrophic. florida's governor is warning residents to prepare for the worst, but when, and where will it hit?

uncertain future. president trump decides to end an obama-era program that protected nearly 800,000 young immigrants claiming it's unconstitutional and will save jobs. tonight, amid nationwide protests and increasing pressure on congress, former president obama is now speaking out. moving missiles, kim jong-un is believed to be moving a mobile launcher into place for another missile test as south korean war ships conduct live fire drills, will the u.s. be able to stop an outbreak of war? and lasting damage. hillary clinton blames senator bernie sanders for causing her, quote, lasting damage in the 2016 primaries in an excerpt from her new book. clinton also writes sand derz had to, quote, resort to innuendo and impugning my character because the two agreed on so much. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room."

>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >> we are following breaking news. hurricane irma strengthening to a category 5 storm with 185 mile an hour sustained winds. it is tied for the second strongest hurricane ever in the atlantic. tropical storm force winds will be hitting the islands of the caribbean later tonight. florida residents are stripping stores of emergency supplies. mandatory evacuations have been ordered and the national guard is activated already. stand by for the latest forecast. there is also breaking news over at the white house. president trump just said he has a great heart for the thousands of young people whose undocumented parents brought them into the united states as children, even though he's ending protections president obama put in place to keep them from being deported. as protests spread across the country, the former president issued a rare public rebuke, calling the decision, quote,

self-defeating and cruel. we are also following ominous new threats from north korea which now claims it can, quote, blow up the u.s. main land and annihilate americans. can kim jong-un be swayed by shows of military force or threats of more crippling sanctions? we are covering all of that, much more this hour with our guests, including democratic congressman ruben gallego of arizona. he's a member of the armed services committee. and our correspondents and specialists are also standing by. let's begin with the threat, and it is a very serious threat posed by hurricane irma. our meteorologist tom seder has the updated forecast just released. tom, what does it say? >> it's a massive storm, wolf. i mean, there's only been one hurricane in recorded history in the atlantic that has been stronger. 1980, it was allen. and it was only five miles per hour stronger. if we continue to see this eye wall around irma strengthen with convective activity, if it

surrounds that eye, we'll easily probably max out where allen was. we have big concerns here. this is a buzz saw heading toward the northern islands of the lesser antilles. this is going to decimate some of the islands. not just some of the more fortified buildings, but across many islands, the loss of electricity, power, communications, maybe water. we've got the warning still in effect for anguilla, antigua. british virgin islands and puerto rico, their conditions will start to deteriorate tomorrow. you can see the wind flow. this model, a little different than others, slides it towards the turks and caicos where they are looking at a possible storm surge up to 15, 20, maybe 25 feet in a few locations, that includes south eesz bahama islands. this would be a good time to show you the radar. this is out of martinique and guadalupe. you can see the eye. this is 23 miles in diameter. this is going to swallow barbuda and anguilla.

most likely those islands will get inside the eye. the winds are going to be light when that happens, but they have to put up with the ferocious winds, not just on entry, but on exit. so, as we continue to look along -- i want to point out this is jose. jose could be a hurricane soon. i don't think it's going to move in the same direction, a fish storm let's hope out in the course of the open waters. the national hurricane forecast has this, this is staggering, wolf, a catastrophic hurricane, category 4 or 5, and it continues as a category 5, and then 4 closer to u.s. main land. it is almost impossible really for storms of this magnitude to continue to have this kind of strength for this period of time. it's like taking a top and spinning it on your kitchen table. that vertical centrifugal force can only withstand that for so long before it starts to wobble. that's what this will do. when it wobbles, it goes through a reorganization process, eye wall replacement cycle, takes 10 to 12 hours. we'll see that happen 2 to 3

times. because it is warm water, getting into extremely more warm water, they continue to be in extremely good agreement. the environment, there is no dry air, no wind to sheer it apart. the last month the month before, we had sahara dust so it kept activity low. sometime saturday we expect a turn to the right, pick the system up to the new york times. we were hoping for a small window that sooner than later it would get picked up, possibly slide past the outer banks into the open atlantic. that window is pretty much shutting down. we cannot disregard the possibility of that momentum carrying it into the gulf of mexico. let me show you a couple models here. first of all, this is rainfall. this will give you a good idea that that center most likely will stay over open waters. notice this other little shift here, that's jose. so, we know it's not going to follow the same path and get in the open waters. that's good. but this model shows heavy amounts of rain into cuba where we could have easily over 20 inches.

we are already looking at isolated 12 to 15 amounts. this is the european model. it takes it into the high terrain of cuba. central cuba toward the east, that could help break the system down. but that water is extremely warm and at 90 miles between cuba and the u.s., look where it places it. now, we're going to watch this and kind of compare it to the u.s. model. wolf, the agreement with these two systems really is amazing, but the farther out you go in time, even if you're projecting rainfall in your own neighborhood by next monday, there is going to be some differences. but there is not much. the american model brings it closer to the bahamas and the east coast of florida. if we show both of these models back to back -- because one goes to the east coast, one to the west coast. here they are. the u.s. model, gfs in red, the european which, by the way, wolf, last thursday, the european placed it right here as well. so, there has been no difference. let's take it into time till september 11th. one still on the east coast, land fall near savannah, the

other land fall southwestern florida, it's possible it could slide a little bit to the east, a little bit to the west. so, again, we've got to continue to monitor this. and when you look at the time line, there is time to prepare. evacuations already trying to take place. preparations getting the resources in place and as needed. but we're going to watch any interaction with the land mass. we are also going to watch any deviation to the track, to the north or to the south. anyway you look at it, wolf, a category 4 or 5 next weekend is considered catastrophic. it's stronger than harvey. the good news is it's moving faster than harvey so it won't drop that kind of rainfall. but we all know what happened to rockport in texas with those strong winds and we're looking at this to occur as a category 5 over the millions that live, of course, in the caribbean, making their way, of course, puerto rico, dominican republic, haiti, cuba, the bahamas, turks and caicos, and the southeastern u.s. this is an unbelievable storm of its magnitude. the only thing i can think of,

wolf, in recent history, is super typhoon hayan that devastated the town in the philippines. of course the crew from cnn was there with anderson cooper for a week so we saw the devastation there. not good news tonight. >> not good news at all. don't forget the millions and millions of people in south florida who are wondering what they should be doing. certainly they are getting ready and the governor of florida rick scott already ordering some mandatory evacuations. but presumably a lot more on the way. you say there's time, but there isn't a whole lot of time before the weekend. tom seder, we are staying in very close touch with you. there is other breaking news we are following. breaking news over at the white house. president trump just met with the republican leaders of the house and senate after tossing congress another huge political problem. the president says lawmakers need to come up with a fix because he's ending protections for 800,000 young people that were brought into the united states as children. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jim accosta. jim, the president is taking a

lot of heat already for this decision including from former president obama. >> reporter: that's right, would have. we finally heard from the president on this decision this afternoon. he told reporters he has a, quote, great love for the dreamers, but those dreamers are not feeling the love tonight. for the young undocumented immigrants brought to the u.s. as children known as the dreamers, it could be a nightmare. the trump administration is terminating the obama here a policy that shielded the dreamers from being deported. the white house and attorney general jeff sessions fierce immigration hard liner in the senate to make an announcement that sounded taylormade for the president's political base. >> to have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest, we cannot admit everyone who would like to come here. it's just that simple. that would be an open borders policy, and the american people have rightly rejected that.

>> reporter: instead, the same president who claimed he loved the dreamers -- >> we love the reamers. we love everybody. >> we are going to deal with daca with heart. >> reporter: my highest duty is to defend the people and the constitution of the united states of america. at the same time, i do not favor punishing children. most of them are now adults, for the actions of their parents. but we must also recognize we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws. >> why did the president not come out and make this announcement himself today? why did he leave it to his attorney general? it's his decision. these kids, their lives are on the line because of what he's doing. why not -- >> it's in large part a big part of the legal process. this was deemed illegal by, i think, just about every legal expert that you can find in the country. >> reporter: late in the day, the president finally weighed in. >> i have a great heart for the folks we're talking about, a great love for them, and people think in terms of children, but they're really young adults.

i have a love for these people and hopefully now congress will be able to help them and do it properly. and i can tell you, in speaking to members of congress, they want to be able to do something and do it right. and really we have no choice. we have to be able to do something. and i think it's going to work out very well. and long-term it's going to be the right solution. >> reporter: the white house is stressing congress still has six months to pass a fix to protect the nearly 800,000 dreamers and no immigrant of the program will be impacted before march. but for the president to sign a dreamer fix he wants something in return, such as the wall. >> you're saying that if we're going to allow the dreamers to stay in this country, we want a wall. is that accurate? >> i don't think that the president's been shy about the fact he wants a wall. and certainly something that he feels is an important part of a responsible immigration reform package. >> reporter: democrats are already balking at that, questioning the president's motives, noting he harded arizona sheriff joe arpaio

convicted of an order to stop profiling latinos. >> they are bringing drugs. they are bringing crime. they're rapists. and some, i assume are good people. >> reporter: fierce opposition to the president's plan ask umming from all sides. from the president's own diversity council. >> i am resigning right now from that council. i don't see the point in continuing to try to work with people that clearly don't see this issue the way i do. >> reporter: to former president obama who said in a statement, to target these young people is wrong because they have done nothing wrong. it is self-defeating because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. and it is cruel. now that it's in the hands of congress, the question is do they have time to fix this? >> let me say a word about the six months. calculation of six months is to march 5th so we have plenty time, right? not by senate standards we don't. >> reporter: the trump

administration is not offering much comfort to those dreamers who handed over their personal contact information to the department of homeland security when they received protection from deportation. officials now say that information potentially could be used by immigration authorities and that as soon as those dreamers lose their daca status, they are eligible for deportation just like anybody else who is in the country illegally. wolf? >> all right, jim accosta at the white house, thanks very much. joining us here in the situation room, democratic congressman ruben ruben gallego. thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you. >> i think there are 28,000 daca recipients in your home state of arizona. how is this going to affect them? >> it's going to be terrible. these aren't just recipients, a lot of them are my friends, i consider them family. you're basically destabilizing their lives. these young men and women started families, bought homes, businesses, some are police officers, some are veterans. and we're going to cruelly take them away from this life.

>> do you think that's realistic 800,000 nationwide might eventually be deported or at least some of them will be deported? >> if we don't -- if we as congress do not act to stop the president, and we have to stop the president. it is an something we're doing for the president. they will be deported. the way isis is operating right now they don't care who they are nabbing and grabbing. they're going for the easiest targets. they're going for people they know are good citizens. they know they have steady routines. they're going to target these young men and women and anyone they encounter. at the end of the day they want to hit their quotas and that's what's going to p ha. >> how far are you willing to go to pass legislation that will allow these 800,000 young people to remain here in the united states, to have a pathway for legal status and maybe even citizenship? >> we believe that there is a compromise among democrats -- >> what is that come pro sniez >> the compromise at a minimum is make sure there is protection for these dreamers, they have some level of permanent residency here. at the same time we are also not going to be put into a situation where we are going to be using

human beings as a bargaining chip especially when we know the president did not have to do this. this idea the president was kind of put into a corner and this is the best decision he can make is absolutely false. >> attorney general jeff sessions said there was this deadline because the attorneys general from various states were filing motions against president obama's unilateral executive order claiming it was unconstitutional, and they had to do something. >> well, he could have also just challenged the attorney generals and actually defended daca in court. instead they chose to go by this arbitrary deadline and use that as like the go, no go situation that made them make this decision. look, at the end of the day, this may go down as most cowardly and cruel move ever by a president in the modern united states. >> he says he loves the dreamers and has a great heart, wants to help them. that if in fact legislation is passed over the next six months in the house and senate, they'll be even better off. you heard him say that. >> i don't think the word "love" means the same thing to him that it does to other people. so, whatever the president is

saying, we just have to take with a grain of salt. that's why congress needs to act and pass a, you know, some form of dream act that will actually protect them from deportation. at the same time, we are also not going to be used and we're not going to allow human lives to be used as a bargaining chip for a really stupid border wall that at the end of the day does not bring -- >> what will prevent these 800,000 young people from being deported? will you vote for funding for the border wall with mexico if it includes legal status for these 800,000 dreamers? >> at this point i have to say no. again, this is not a situation where we want to set up a precedent where we're going to be able to use human lives for e egotistical driven campaign to be governed. that's not how you governor a nation like this. >> how do you see the decision today by the attorney general and the president ordered the attorney general to make this

announcement, coming, what, a week after the sheriff arpaio decision, the decision to forget about his conviction, to pardon him. >> well, i think this plays further and further to the idea that the president is just trying to play to his base, a base of voters that's really xenophobic. i find it funny they want to talk about the rule of law. sheriff arpaio was found guilty by a court of law and the president interceded in the process of justice to overturn his conviction. meanwhile, you know, on the flipsid3 they try to say this is something they had to do in terms of -- to fill the rule of law. this is all going back and forth. the president at the same time wants to say he has authority to enforce his muslim ban but doesn't have the authority to also stop people from being deported. you can't have it both ways. and really the only reason you're doing this, again, is to excite your base who at this point has pretty much lost everything they've been trying to do. >> congressman ruben gallego

from arizona, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. >> coming up, days after testing its most powerful nuclear weapon, north korea is directing ominous new threats to the united states. is kim jong-un's regime on the verge of testing yet another inter-continental ballistic missile? david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

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does your sleep aid leave you groggy? switch to drug-free midnite®. its specially formulated to work with the body's sleep mechanism to promote natural sleep. try midnite® tonight. we're following an alarming new warning from south korea. it's predicting north korea may be preparing to launch another inter-continental ballistic

missile only days after successfully detonating its most powerful nuclear weapon. north korea's state-run media claims kim jong-un's military is ready to, quote, blow up the u.s. main land and annihilate americans. let's check in with our pentagon krt barbara starr. barbara, how is the u.s. military responding? >> reporter: right now, wolf, nobody is engaging in very much cool, calm, collected talk about all of this. there's a lot of rhetoric from washington all the way to pyongyang. right now hard to see how this all ends. new live fire drills by south korea's navy as tensions continue to rise. several war ships sending a message to kim jong-un south korea will hit back against any provocation. president trump sending his own message, tweeting, i am allowing japan and south korea to buy a substantially increased amount of highly sophisticated military equipment from the united states.

the u.s. has already agreed to allow south korea to buy more powerful missiles. pyongyang may be getting ready to fire a third inter-continental ballistic missile, according to south korea. two u.s. war ships armed with the aegis missile defense system are in the region. other missile defense systems are ready in japan and south korea. u.s. air force b-1 bombers could conduct an air drill over the east china sea and possibly across the peninsula this week in yet another u.s. show of force. but none of this is deterring north korea's escalating threats. >> translator: the recent self-defense by my country dprk are peckish to none other than the u.s.. the u.s. would receive more gift packages from my country as long as it relies on reckless

provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the dprk. >> reporter: in the u.s. effort to get north korea to even talk about giving up its weapons is doomed, the north korean ambassador says. >> translator: the dprk will never under any circumstance put its nuclear deterrence on the table. >> reporter: one says it might get worse, a lot worse. >> we should be focused on their ability to basically deploy nuclear blackmail. they have an ability to hit south korea. and if they were to invade south korea, they could threaten further nuclear destruction if we were to intercede. >> reporter: nuclear blackmail that needs to be countered. >> we ought to be doing more in the covert realm. we should be deploying cyber and other tools to roll back, to sabotage, to curtail north

korea's current capability. >> reporter: and tomorrow on capitol hill, defense secretary james mattis, secretary of state rex tillerson and the cia director are all scheduled to brief congress on the latest north korean intelligence. >> barbara starr at the pentagon, thank you very much. let's get some more on all of this with independent senator angus king of maine. he's on the intelligence and armed services committees. senator, thanks for joining us. how serious is this new threat from north korea right now? >> it's extremely serious, wolf. it's serious on a lot of levels. the whole situation is very unnerving because of the heightened level of rhetoric. if you go back through history, wolf, wars usually start because of misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and that's why the whole -- the escalation of the language which could presage escalation of actual conflict is what's so disturbing

at this point. >> south korean officials as you heard say north korea is now moving an icbm, inter-continental ballistic missile, ready for another test. you're a member of the intelligence committee. first of all, have you been briefed on this? what can you tell us? is this a realistic threat? >> well, we've been briefed. it is a realistic threat. we've been briefed on it numerous times. as barbara mentioned, there is a briefing coming this week from the top military and intelligence officials that will fill in some of the details. but there's no question that the north koreans have been developing inter-continental ballistic missiles. they've tested several. they are developing miniaturized nuclear weapons. they tested one as recently as a few days ago. the real issue is putting those two things together. this is a problem, wolf, that's been festering for 25 or 30 years, and unfortunately for president trump it's coming to fruition on his watch. and the options are very limited. i think it's got to be all of

the tools that we have, whether it's diplomatic, financial, military, all of those things have to be deployed in order to deal with this threat. this is a very serious, and we have to understand what this regime in north korea wants, what their goals are, and, wolf, i don't want to make your nightmares worse, but another piece of this that isn't getting a lot of discussion is the proliferation risk. in other words, north korea sharing some of this technology. my personal nightmare is isis with some kind of nuclear capability and a tramp steamer heading across the atlantic ocean. this is a threat to the entire world and yet there are no good solutions. i continue to say i believe the only solution comes through china. they're the only people that really have any power to influence the actions of the north korean regime, and they've got to decide that this is a

greater threat to the stability of the entire region rather than looking at it parochially as saying they don't want the united states to have more influence on the peninsula. but we've got to pull all the levers here and -- but i think the number one opportunity is china. >> i know that almost a decade or so ago, north korea did share nuclear technology with the syrian regime, bashar al-assad. they built a new reactor that the israelis then blew up. the notion of sharing nuclear technology, that has happened in the past and i assume it's a great fear right now. but let me get your quick reaction. steve bannon, the president's former strategic advisor of breitbart news, he says there is no military solution. he told the magazine, the american prospect, until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, i don't know what you're talking about.

there's no military solution here. they got us. is he right? >> well, i think he's certainly right to point out the risk to seoul. i was over there less than a year ago and i didn't realize frankly, you don't really realize it until you see it, that seoul is about as far from the north korean border as washington is from annapolis, maryland. i mean, it's about a 40-minute drive. and, so, the north koreans could devastate seoul, which is a city of 26 million people. and by the way, there are probably 50 to 100,000 americans in there, soldiers and civilians, that is very vulnerable to conventional attack from the north. they've got something like 8,000 artillery pieces already targeting seoul. so, it's not a case of bombers or rockets or missiles. they can do this with conventional artillery. so, bannon is right that this -- this is a very real counter

threat, if you will. and the other reality is any idea that we could somehow do -- i remember the term, a surgical strike, and go in with, in one or two days and take out the entire nuclear capacity of north korea. i don't believe that's true either from a logistical or military standpoint. finally, you can't bomb knowledge. if they've got the expertise, even if there was a bombing campaign, that expertise could be reconstituted in some period of time. ultimately, there has to be some diplomatic settlement of this. but it's got to be backed up by force. i mean, they've got to understand that if they make a provocative act, they're going to be in trouble. and china said something very interesting. china said if north korea is attacked, we will defend you. but if you -- if north korea attacks first, we won't. and i think that's giving us something we can build on. >> senator angus king of maine, thanks as usual for joining us.

>> yes, sir, wolf, good to be with you. >> aside of the north korea dilemma, what can president trump do to ratchet down problems with kim jong-un? can congress persuade him 0 to work together on immigration after making a decision to provoke a storm of criticism including from poformer preside obama? if you're 50 or over, what comes to mind when you think about healthcare? understanding your options? or, if you're getting the care you need? at aarpadvantages.com, you can find helpful information about healthcare options. leaving you more time to think about more important things. like not having to think about healthcare at all. surround yourself with healthy advantages at aarpadvantages.com/health.

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we are watching protests across the country tonight,

looking at live pictures from minneapolis. president trump is taking heat from all sides for his decision to end protections for young people who were brought into the united states as children, grew up knowing no other home. former president obama who put the protections in place issued a rare criticism of the white house, calling the decision self-defeating and cruel. unless congress acts quickly to fix the problem, 800,000 young people could face deportation, although president trump insists it will be a low priority. let's bring in our specialists. gloria, you heard sara sanders, the white house press secretary say today the administration has confidence congress will pass legislation to deal with this. so, what's the political calculation? >> is that the first time you've heard anybody say they have confidence in congress, that they would get something done? you know, the history here is that congress has tried for years and failed to get something done. i think the real story here is the president was faced with a

real problem. he had been on the campaign trail consistently saying that he wanted to end daca, and then he had also said since he came into office, he spoke to president obama about it, he spoke to others about it. and he said that he really cared about the dreamers. well, how do you square those two things? it's very difficult. so, what he did was he said, okay, i'm going to pass the buck. i'm going to pass the buck here to congress and let's see if congress can resolve it. and now the challenge really to the congress is to figure out how they can resolve this, and maybe the president is looking for some kind of a deal where he gets a little money for the border wall in exchange for not ending daca. >> you know, manu, you're up on the hill. what are the prospects of getting serious legislation on immigration passed that will allow these 800,000 young people to have some legal status and maybe even a pathway to citizenship? >> i think it's going to be very

difficult, wolf. even that idea that gloria just talked about there, possibly adding something to deal with the wall, border wall, or even something that other republican senators have talked about to limit legal immigration, that's something senator tom cotton has talked about. adding something like that which would get a lot of republican support to something like daca, a daca bill, is a non-starter to senate democrats. the top leadership aide told me there's no way that senate democrats would go along with something like that. on top of that, republicans are really badly divided over how to move forward on daca. some want those tougher enforcement measures that democrats don't want. others are okay with providing some sort of legal status to dreamers. hard liners say we should not give status to em this. on top of that, wolf, the white house throwing, making things even more difficult by suggesting there should be a big comprehensive immigration bill, something that republicans

strongly oppose in the house and in the senate by, for the most part, suggesting they should do that really prompted a lot of republicans to scratch their head, including senator john cornyn, number two republican told me that is a guaranteed recipe for failure if they were to go that route. so, really unclear how to go forward, especially if the white house does not signal what exactly they want, would have. >> jeffrey tubin, you're our legal expert. was the attorney general of the united states jeff sessions right when he said that president obama's initial executive order creating this daca policy, sessions said it was unconstitutional. >> well, it is true that several conservative judges hand picked by the plaintiffs in those cases, have ruled that the president exceeded his authority. >> president obama? >> president obama exceeded his authority. but it is far from clear that he was correct that those judges were correct. and, in fact, the united states department of justice, the office of legal counsel which passes on these executive orders, gave president obama the

okay. here the idea that the president was compelled to, in effect, declare president obama's executive action unconstitutional is simply not true. and if he really thought it was unconstitutional, he wouldn't give him the extra six months. if it's -- it's either constitutional or it's not. so, i think what he was doing was trying to act like he's not killing daca, trying to act like he loves these 800,000 people whose lives are now in jeopardy, but he is throwing them to the wofrl wolves. >> we did hear from former president obama, david, and he said this decision by the president today, president trump, was cruel. it's not often we hear nowadays from president obama. >> right. and for a situation room viewers who want to know how strongly president obama feels about this issue, i encourage people to go back and read president obama's speech from 2014 when he talked about comprehensive immigration reform. he compared dreamers to malia and sasha, his own children and

said the circumstances of their birngt birth, he saw them as exactly the same. this is a shout out to congress if they don't fix this they're morally wrong. >> everyone stick around. we're getting information about potential conflicts in the russia investigation. we'll take a quick break. we'll be right back. it's time for the biggest sale of the year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides to keep you effortlessly comfortable. and snoring.... does your bed do that? the new 360 smart bed is part of our biggest sale of the year where all beds are on sale. and right now the sleep number queen c2 mattress now only $699. ends sunday!

there is more breaking news.

we are following the white house has just issued a emergency declarations for florida, puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands as hurricane irma, very dangerous category 5 storm, churns toward the united states. we'll continue to track irma throughout the evening. in the meantime, let's get back to some other important news, including some political news we are following. manu, you're up there up on capitol hill. you and evan perez, our justice department correspondent. you've been reporting on some potential conflicts that have emerged between various congressional investigations into the russia probe and the u.s. presidential election and what the special counsel robert mueller is up to. tell our viewers what you guys have learned. >> yeah, that's right. this probably could be foreseen given the fact there are three congressional committees that are investigating this issue. they really don't talk to each other. they are doing their own investigations and they are not getting much guidance about exactly what robert mueller is looking at as well. but what we have learned is that the senate intelligence

committee and robert mueller's team had a bit of a snafu when paul manafort had been interviewed about the june 2016 trump tower meeting with donald trump, jr. he was promised dirt from the russians about the clinton campaign. when manafort talked to the committee, mueller's team actually wanted to get a transcript, transcribed interview. they wanted the transcript from that interview but they were denied from getting that transcription because of an agreement that had been reached between the committee and, and paul manafort's attorneys. now, also, wolf, i just had a chance to speak with senator richard burr, the intelligence committee chairman who said there are still more questions about that june 2016 trump tower meeting telling me i'm not sure we know everything. he said there are real questions about what the intent of the people in the meeting were, including the russians.

and he also is trying to figure out more about those -- the e-mails that came out from michael cohen, trump's attorney, trying to move forward on a trump tower project in moscow, saying they're trying to learn more information about that as well, a sign this investigation could continue to go on. mike warner vice chairman said he expects this to go into next year. burr said his aspirational goal is to get it done this year. there are so many things to continue to dig in on including >> jeffrey, does mule're investigation out rank? >> it simple terms it does because they have the ability to subpoena anything they want. what i find peculiar about this story is that if paul manafort received a grant of immunity from congress then you could see why mueller's team would not be able to get access to the transcript or not be able to use it. but we know that manafort has not received immunity. so this transcript is simply a

transcript that exists in the world and i don't see any reason why mueller's people can't get their hands on it. i assume by now they have, but that's the kind of thing that the tension that goes on. but the big fight is -- >> would you say to the lawyer, just hand it over? >> it's not up to him. >> that's not the deal we struck. >> that's what's peculiar about this story. i don't see manafort could strike a deal with congress that says you can't give it to mueller. mueller could subpoena congress. mueller can get documents. the idea that you can create documents outside of immunity, which is a whole separate category that are off limits to a criminal prosecutor just seems wrong to me. >> everybody standby. there is more developing right now and i'm going to ask all of our panelists about a newly released excerpt from hillary clinton's book about the 2016 election. get this. she's blaming senator bernie sanders for lasting damage that

led directly to donald trump nicknaming her crooked hillary. we're monitoring hurricane irma, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever seen in the atlantic. will it hit the united states? adapt supply chains based on trends, tweets and storms. and make adjustments on the fly. ♪ ♪ the ibm cloud. the cloud for enterprise. yours.

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we're back with our mitt cal specialists. and, david, it is amazing.

the new book that hillary clinton is about to release. some excerpts have been released where she criticizes bernie sanders. every time i wanted to hit back against bernie, i was told to restrain myself, that they were little more than a pipe dream. all of this could be used to reinforce his argument that i wasn't a true progressive. my team kept reminding me that we didn't want to alienate his supporters. i felt like i was in a straight jacket. pretty blunt words from her. and at least in part blaming bernie sanders for the problems she had eventually against donald trump. >> blunt words and it may not be a popular thing to say, i think she's right that he is one of a number of reasons why she lost. there is a lot of self-inflicted reasons, but one of the things that sanders did in that campaign was convince some

democrats that whatever had happened during the obama years, a 38% drop in unemployment, getting rid of don't ask, don't tell, wasn't good enough, that they should go a different party. it didn't work out for democrats. >> even more so, bernie sanders set up the crooked hillary image through talking about the speeches to goldman sachs, talking about how she was in the pocket of wall street. >> and by forcing her hand on tpp as well. >> if she had hit back on him on all of this stuff, bernie sanders did not raise her e-mails. he was sick of her e-mails, so he didn't raise her e-mails and he would have if she had hit him back, if she had hit him harder on a bunch of stuff. by the time your debate in brook land occurred they had the gloves off and the speeches to goldman sachs came up.

but if she had started hitting back at him, they would have just handed the republicans more fodder. >> and trump might have won the election in that case. >> no, but they would have. so i don't think she was necessarily getting bad advice. i'm not so sure that she couldn't have thread the needle a little bit differently to kind of get it to a certain degree without alienating his supporters. >> her aids thought she had the democratic nomination locked up and why get into a fight like this. >> that makes sense. it's probably good advice to not start that fight when they were looking ahead to the general. that being said, though, senator sanders was playing tough and playing fair, but he did soften her up for the general election. >> you agree? >> especially about the idea of personal corruption, the idea about her that was

untrustworthy, something that bernie sanders made clear and donald trump made that -- >> you can't bernie for that. he already had that argument. >> bernie did not raise the e-mails, which certainly trump did. >> we will continue this conversation after this show. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation. erin burnett outfront starts right now. next, the breaking news, hurricane irma a category five storm headed straight for the united states. florida about to begin i v evacuations. and vladimir putin warns of a global catastrophe. what is he talking about? good evening. outfront tonight breaking news, hurricane irma, a category five monster on a collision course with florida. the white house issuing emergency declarations for the state and puerto rico. here